I fell off a balcony, put vodka in coffee, woke in strange homes & blew £60k

FALLING off a two-storey balcony, blacking out on boats, and nearly getting kicked off a plane – these are some of the dangerous situations Kathryn Hartvigsen put herself in during a decade-long addiction to alcohol that cost her nearly £60,000.

But, despite sipping vodka into her coffee in the morning, during that tumultuous 10 years, Kathryn, known as Kat, didn’t see herself as an alcoholic until one day she reached a tipping point and knew she had to change.

The now 33-year-old married mum-of-two from Queensland, Australia, was just a schoolgirl when she started drinking at 14 – despite her parents being firmly against it.

“We barely had any booze in the house,” she tells The Sun.

“My parents were strict and on the ball, but even so, I sneaked it in.

“I was getting into trouble drinking whenever I could, and on the weekend I would hang out with older boys and get into mischief.”

But even from a young age, Kathryn couldn’t “drink normally.”

“I had to binge,” she confesses.

“I thought I was the life of the party, but I was just a liability.”

Her binge drinking continued throughout school and college. Then, aged 18, she moved to Hawaii, and her drinking intensified.

By 23, she was teaching surf lessons and secretly adding vodka to her morning coffee on the way to work.

She would regularly pass out from drinking and put herself in dangerous situations.

“I was blacking out on boats and going swimming without remembering. I’d wake up in random apartments,” she tells the Sun.

“I fell two storeys from a balcony and got a concussion, and that still didn’t stop me.”

‘I could have died in my sleep’

“I was sitting on the rail of the balcony, and the next thing I remember, my friends are pulling me out of the bush below in a frenzy.

“Miraculously, I only got away with a concussion – but I went to sleep on it and didn’t go to the hospital until the next day.

“I could have died in my sleep.

“I was a mess. My friends were getting sick of putting up with my mess and always being the belligerent one.

“I remember once I was going to the beach with my friend, and before we went, I crouched into the cupboard to drink vodka before leaving, and my friend couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“I was so drunk once that I passed out on a plane and they almost had to turn it around because of the state of me.”

Despite the embarrassing encounter, which she can’t remember, she didn’t stop boozing. In fact, she drank even more – and increasingly put herself in dangerous situations.

Sometimes, she would lose her car and have to stay in the homes of people she barely knew.

“One night I went out with friends. We went to a club, and I left with this guy,” she tells the Sun.

“For some reason, which I can’t remember, we went different ways. But I didn’t know the way back to the club, so I was just walking down a road. I was blind drunk.

“A different man saw me from one of the flats and came out because I was scared and shouting on the phone.

“He took me in and was so lovely to me, but it could have gone the other way. I had no idea that morning where my car was then, either.

“I would always park where I wasn’t supposed to and then completely forget where my car was.

“One time, I parked it in front of a house on a dirt road. I went inside and passed out, and my car had been towed and was gone. I would always lose my keys, too.”

At her worst, she was drinking a bottle of wine and a fifth of a bottle of vodka a day. But despite the “constant hangovers,” Kathryn didn’t see it as a problem.

I was bloated, my face was puffy and red. I was in this weird, almost psychotic, state where I didn’t know what was real.

Kathryn Hartvigsen

“I was drinking vodka before surf lessons and thinking it was normal,” she says.

“But I didn’t see myself as an alcoholic because I didn’t look like the stereotype.

“I was literally living in a constant blur. I was so depressed and anxious, and could not deal with the constant severe hangovers.

“I was bloated, my face was puffy and red. I was in this weird, almost psychotic, state where I didn’t know what was real. I would wake up, hear the birds, and feel dread that I had to live another day.”

And the habit was costing Kathryn 11,000 Australian dollars a year (£5,848) – a total of £58,480 over 10 years, which she paid for through her job as a surf teacher.

In November 2016, her dad, Mark, now 68, sent Kathryn a heartfelt message expressing concern for her.

Kathryn says: “It was beautiful, but I wasn’t ready to hear it quite yet. However, as my drinking worsened, I reached a breaking point.

“I was so sick of thinking every morning: ‘I’ve got this, I won’t drink today,’ and then by 9am buying vodka.”

‘I couldn’t imagine my life without alcohol’

In June 2016, she called her brother, begging for help. He listened to her and set her onto the path to recovery. She hasn’t had a drink since.

Kathryn immersed herself in recovery by attending meetings and telling everyone in her life about her decision – including her boss.

“I wanted accountability, and what was lovely is that everyone understood. Everyone became my cheerleader,” she says.

She marked milestones with rewards – getting a tattoo on her “drinking hand” at three months sober and going skydiving after one year.

One of the reasons I got sober is I wanted to be a good mum

“In year two, I became a flight attendant,” she says.

“Five years sober, I went on a game show.”

Now Kathryn says sobriety has given her a life beyond anything she imagined.

She explains: “Every chapter has been bigger and better than the last. I was terrified to quit because alcohol felt like my best friend.

“I couldn’t imagine who I’d be without it. But when it was gone, the worst part of my life was gone.”

Now she says being present and sober for her children is the greatest reward.

“One of the biggest reasons I got sober was because I wanted to be a mum, and I wanted to be a good one,” she explains.

“If you can get sober, you can do anything. The possibilities are endless.”